Harbor Freight DA Polisher - New

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swanicyouth said:
That is what happens when a country like America sublets all it's manufacturing to overseas. If that machine was made in the USA to a very high level of quality, likely it would cost $700-$800 or more. In todays world, it allows cheap access to a machine like a DA. The Chinese manufacturers know America's firms need them for product, so they do whatever is best ($$$) for their factory. We (American firms) have little or no control over what we get quality wise. There are good batches - and there are bad batches.
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Nice in depth investigative journalism swanicyouth!:xyxthumbs:
 
The book, 'Poorly Made in China' should be required reading for any (and every) one. It IS an eye opener to say the least.

Bill
 
feslope said:
Ask for the manager or go to another store or buy online. Mine was on sale for $$49.99 deduct my 20% plus 2 year warranty came to $51.00 and a few cents. I replaced the 6" bp with a 5" I already had and was good to go. :buffing:
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I looked online to buy the extended 2 year warranty with no luck...how do I do that?
 
How do you guys think one of these harbor freight DAs would work with a 3inch backing plate? I'm getting tired of having to swap backing plates back and forth on my griots garage DA, and was thinking about getting a harbor freight one to run alongside my griots as a dedicated DA for my 3inch pads.

Would I need to swap counterweights?

Also, I'm well aware that HF stuff is crappy, but I'm thinking this may be just what I need for my smaller backing plate/pad combo. I can't justify spending a lot more money on another "name brand" polisher, especially if they come from the same Chinese factory.
 
4ord said:
How do you guys think one of these harbor freight DAs would work with a 3inch backing plate? I'm getting tired of having to swap backing plates back and forth on my griots garage DA, and was thinking about getting a harbor freight one to run alongside my griots as a dedicated DA for my 3inch pads.

Would I need to swap counterweights?
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It should work just fine. Speed and throw are comparable to other machines, that should be most of what matters. I can't imagine the counterweight would matter, as it doesn't seem to affect much with other machines.
 
swanicyouth said:
It should work just fine. Speed and throw are comparable to other machines, that should be most of what matters. I can't imagine the counterweight would matter, as it doesn't seem to affect much with other machines.
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Ok cool. Thanks.

I was considering getting a 3inch griots, but I'm not sure if that would have enough power to do spot corrections with the 3 inch pads...so I guess HF would be my best bet on a budget.
 
3" pads work great on a regular DA w/ tons of power. Not sure why people go with the Griots 3" machine.
 
Never mind, I just confirmed with HF customer service 800 # that the 2 year warranty is $9.98, and the 1 year is $5.99 and I can purchase it through the customer service #.

So I'll head back to a different store and see if they will double stack my coupons. Worse case scenario is $59.99- 20% + tax and then an a dditional $9.98 for the 2 year warranty= $61.33 OTD price. Saves me money for quality pads and polishes now.:props:
 
Purple87SS said:
Never mind, I just confirmed with HF customer service 800 # that the 2 year warranty is $9.98, and the 1 year is $5.99 and I can purchase it through the customer service #.

So I'll head back to a different store and see if they will double stack my coupons. Worse case scenario is $59.99- 20% + tax and then an a dditional $9.98 for the 2 year warranty= $61.33 OTD price. Saves me money for quality pads and polishes now.:props:
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Right on their coupons they state that you can't double stack coupons. When the DA is on sale for $49.99 it is on a "Super Coupon" so I think that's why they won't let you use the stand alone 20% coupon.
 
4ord said:
How do you guys think one of these harbor freight DAs would work with a 3inch backing plate? I'm getting tired of having to swap backing plates back and forth on my griots garage DA, and was thinking about getting a harbor freight one to run alongside my griots as a dedicated DA for my 3inch pads.

Would I need to swap counterweights?

Also, I'm well aware that HF stuff is crappy, but I'm thinking this may be just what I need for my smaller backing plate/pad combo. I can't justify spending a lot more money on another "name brand" polisher, especially if they come from the same Chinese factory.
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I've been thinking of doing this also--I wonder if it makes sense to use a 3" rotary backing plate, a 1.5" rotary extension and a rotary to DA adapter--this way the 3" pad will be away from the counter weight shroud on the polisher which is pretty close to 3" itself. Would seem to allow more flexibility in tight spaces.
 
swanicyouth said:
3" pads work great on a regular DA w/ tons of power. Not sure why people go with the Griots 3" machine.
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Only advantage I see is ease of maneuverability over a larger machine.

But $100 for a griots or ~$50 for a HF with more power....

Think ill go with the HF. lol
 
ski2 said:
I've been thinking of doing this also--I wonder if it makes sense to use a 3" rotary backing plate, a 1.5" rotary extension and a rotary to DA adapter--this way the 3" pad will be away from the counter weight shroud on the polisher which is pretty close to 3" itself. Would seem to allow more flexibility in tight spaces.
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If that's doing what I think it is, you're allowing lots of room for fingers to accidentally slip into the path of the spinning counter weight, and that does not sound fun.

My 3 inch LC backing plate seems to do ok without any crazy extensions on my my Griots 6 inch. Maneuverability is still pretty good. It's not 100%, but it's still very good.
 
4ord said:
If that's doing what I think it is, you're allowing lots of room for fingers to accidentally slip into the path of the spinning counter weight, and that does not sound fun. .
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I think you're right on having to be careful to not get your fingers into the counter weight area, but I believe I've seen Mike use a set up like this on a number of his articles. If I remember correctly he actually uses a 2 7/8" rotary BP that has a raised area where it screws onto the polisher that he inserts an DA adapter. This seems to get the BP/Pad an inch or so away from the shroud for more manuverability.
 
I picked up one of these for a backup or 3" BP machine yesterday and the were giving out 25% off 1 item coupons good for Easter Sunday only!
 
An an update:

I went to a different HF store since original store was quoting me $34.99 on the 2 year protection plan. I picked up the DA polisher(used a 25% off coupon) and 3 pads, and the 2 year protection plan for the correct $9.99 price. Was bout $73 OTD for everything. I also went to Autozone where a friend works, and picked up some 32 oz. Meguiar's M105 & M205 at 20% off.

Tested out the DA/polish/pads on my test panel and was pretty happy with the results. Can't wait to get the whole car done, as well as our other cars. I will report back in a few weeks with a update on the machine.
 
My brother ran over my PC a few months ago. In a pinch I bought this. Swapped b/p to BnS and counterweight from the PC. This machine was just supposed to hold me over until the a new PC came in the mail. I'm still using it, and see no need to retire it now. I feel bad for trash talking on harbor freight, it seems they have turned things around. It's all still china... But china is still going strong after daily abuse for 6 months now.

Just my personal experience.
 
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